Freakin' out with The Flashing Lights
The Flashing Lights with King Kung
Friday, Feb. 26
Lucky Ron's, 207 Rideau St.
9 p.m.
For a band that considers itself "The Future Of Rock and Roll," ex-Superfriend Matt Murphy admits his latest project, The Flashing Lights, owes much to the year 1966.
That was the year The Yardbirds mixed Chicago blues-influenced rock and roll with acid and created Roger the Engineer, a glorious romp through far-out, virgin pastures that helped set the course for psychedelic and heavy metal movements to come. For Murphy's Flashing Lights, that album's acid-laced influence remains as potent now as it was in 1966.
"The template for a lot of our jamming is Yardbirds rave-ups -- without as many blues notes and without the blues harp, but it's the same frustrated sound explosions that The Yardbirds got," Murphy says. "I just love Jeff Beck's playing at that time. I know Hendrix was the best. But, for me, it's Roger the Engineer-era Jeff Beck."
Though Murphy originally formed The Flashing Lights as a '60s cover band during his Halifax days in The Superfriendz (he even named it after a song by Britain's freakish, aristocratic rocker, Screaming Lord Such), the singer-guitarist is quick to distance the post-Superfriendz version of the band from its devoutly retro early days.
"I do call it psychedelic, but we're not a retro band," insists Murphy. "We're not limiting ourselves to the '60s. It's freer than that. In a negative way, someone might say it's pretty prog. Or you could say it's '90s psychedelic."
Helping The Flashing Lights freak their way into the millennium is the band's trademark two-drum rhythm section of drummers Steve Pitkin and Gavin Maguire (who will be replaced in Ottawa by "some guy named Warren") and bassist Henri Sangalang. Murphy says the visual effect of two drummers beating the skins is key to the wild "freak out" stage shows The Flashing Lights love. But he concedes it's also yet another nod to a rock and roll legend.
"It's really about recreating (The Who's) Keith Moon," he admits. "You need two drummers to fill his shoes."
While claiming The Lights' music incorporates the best of The Superfriendz, Murphy also says his new band is a welcome medium for exploring his own interests and ideas free of the "personal agendas" that often compromised The Superfriendz' work.
"The purpose of The Flashing Lights is just to make music with the least amount of personal friction," states Murphy. "Musical friction and disagreements are great, but I wanted to get into a band where everybody shared the same goal -- making the song sound the best it possibly could."
The Flashing Lights clearly believe the future of rock and roll is safe in their hands. And what better way to announce it than with a subconscious-infesting theme song?
"It's the Screaming Lord Such song. I just make up the words. It's very primitive, free-style rap, something I'm not particularly known for," understates Murphy.
"And in any given show, we say the name Flashing Lights approximately 100 times, to drive it into people's heads."
FILM
Rushmore
Directed by Wes Anderson
Check Listings
There's no time to beat about the bush: Don't walk, rush to Rushmore before this wickedly funny, high-IQ, romantic comedy gets the yank.
Deposited by the good folks at Disney into the local market without a press screening, this original comic gem from the young indie team of director Wes Anderson and writing partner Owen Wilson, deserves your bum on a movie seat -- fast!
Newcomer Jason Schwartzman is scholarship student Max Fischer, a bespectacled adolescent adenoid with braces who considers himself intellectually superior to the rich snots at leafy, private Rushmore Academy.
Truth is, he's Rushmore's worst student. He loves the place so much he fritters away his time in extracurricular activities, setting up new clubs like The Trap and Skeet-shooting Club, heading old ones like The Rushmore Bee-Keepers and writing and directing plays on subjects such as undercover cops and Vietnam.
Precocious over-achiever Max manages to survive his bad grades by constantly being one scheme ahead of the administration. He's also one of those annoying 15-year-olds who talks down to adults -- adults who lap it up, wishing they had a bright, chatty son like Max instead of the sullen ox dinging them for tuition.
One such adult is school benefactor Herman Blume (Bill Murray), a seriously-cynical, unhappily married steel tycoon who can barely tolerate his twin teenage Rushmore brats, Ronny and Donny.
A boot-straps man, himself, Blume hates rich kids, but he takes a shine to Max, who flatters the industrialist's commencement speech. Blume even offers Max a part-time job, but Max refuses, saying his neurosurgeon father provides adequately. Dad (the wonderful Seymour Cassel) is a barber and a widower with a heart of gold.
Blume and Max become buddies of sorts, that is until they both fall in love with the same classy Englishwoman -- Miss Cross (Olivia Williams), a beautiful Grade 1 teacher.
The script is studded with zingy lines, but it also displays a tender grasp of adolescent awkwardness, as when Max tells the recently widowed Miss Cross his mother died when he was seven: "So we both have dead people in our families."
--T.S. Warren
FILM
Not so Super 8MM
Underdeveloped thriller has Nicholas Cage sniffing out 'snuff movie' killers
8MM
Directed by Joel Schumacher
check listings
It was a certain Canadian prime minister who reminded us: "You got to dance with the one that brung you." So what happens when the one that brung you is the devil and the dance floor is knee-deep in bloody sleaze?
In the new porn-thriller 8MM (Eight Millimeter), Nicolas Cage is Tom Welles, a smalltime Pennsylvania private investigator who goes underground into the hard-core porn world to hunt down the makers of a suspected `snuff' film in which a teen-age girl is butchered. Can family-man Welles dance with the devil without losing his soul?
High stakes for sure, but audiences are bound to believe that the hyped combo of Oscar-winner Cage and Seven screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker will be worth the price of admission.
I'd suggest the matinées because 8MM is half a movie -- make that the first half.
Overtly film noirish, director-producer Joel Schumacher (The Client, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin) shows off his Parsons School of Design chops by rendering Welles' normal suburban world, including his fretful wife (Catherine Keener) and infant daughter, in a bilious grey-green light.
As for Cage, he looks cold and ashen as Welles, as if he's barely been warmed over from Leaving Las Vegas. That's even before he mixes with the unthinkably kinky in Los Angeles and New York.
For some reason in this movie, only the lowest porn scum get to enjoy sunshine and colourful duds, the best example being deadly New York porn director Dino Velvet (Fargo's Peter Stormare) who gets to slime about in the movie's floridly silly second half in a cerise velour leisure-suit. Oh, and did I mention the cross-bow?
Mind you, the movie starts out with a self-conscious sense of gravitas with Welles being called by the elderly, wealthy and recently-widowed Mrs. Christian. Along with the stocks and bonds in her steel-magnate husband's private safe, she has found an 8mm film of a young girl being murdered by a masked man.
The kindly matron asks Welles to determine if the horror portrayed in the film is real, or faked, and to find the identity of the girl. Welles is so green that he believes 'snuff movies' are an urban myth like those alligators in the sewer system.
My alarm bells kept telling me buttoned-down wealth does not call in a young turk like Welles. And why -- after 45 years of marriage and several children -- would the wheelchair-bound Mrs. Christian want this can of 8 mm worms opened? Her lawyers would surely have advised otherwise.
What can't be denied is that the 8 mm film that Schumacher has concocted is potent and disturbing stuff, too reminiscent for my liking of actual news stories. The snuff film is also replayed, rewound and slowed down several times throughout the movie as Welles studies it for clues, a technique that's in itself is something of a sadistic tease.
We also watch Cage's character watch the snuff movie and his flinching and agonized expressions, at the parts we can only imagine, serve to magnify the horror.
Welles is our lens, and the movie's quest should be to determine if over-exposure changes his perception and ours. As one character warns Welles early on: "You dance with the devil, the devil doesn't change. The devil changes you."
Welles' sleuthing leads him to North Carolina where he meets Janet (Amy Morton), the single, scraping-by mother of a teenage girl named Mary Anne Mathews who disappeared in 1993.
Morton gives the movie's one genuinely human and wrenchingly credible performance as a mother who unwittingly blames herself for her daughter's disappearance.
Joaquin Phoenix gives us the other resonant character as Max California, a wisecracking adult bookshop clerk in L.A. who agrees to act as Welles' guide down to the Stygian depths of hard-core.
After the duo travels to New York, the movie ditches Max and any pretence of being a character-driven journey into evil. We just get a bloody action-thriller with Cage in righteously angry and damnably nasty vengeance mode.
It's not one of Cage's more memorable performances, but, heck, the actor just started his own independent production company Saturn Films, and he's got to shore up capital.
Unfortunately, Schumacher's total waste of the terrifically talented Catherine Keener can't be so easily written off.
by T.S. Warren
FILM
Fellini Forever, Masina for Every Magical Moment
Nights of Cabiria
Directed by Federico Fellini
Feb. 26-Mar. 1
Bytowne Cinema
325 Rideau St., 789-FILM
Italian with English sub-titles)
Imagine Puss-in-Boots, Betty Boop and Popeye rolled into one and you still can't get enough crinkly edges to describe Cabiria, the spunky little Rome streetwalker immortalized by blonde poppet Giulietta Masina in hubby Federico Fellini's 1957 Nights of Cabiria.
Don't fret, Cabiria isn't one of those clammy 'heart-of-gold hookers' adored by Hollywood. She's innocent, in a strange dreamy way, and imbued with a generous love for life, but she's also got a mouth like a fish-wife and the boastful swagger of a midget wrestler.
She sometimes berates those who genuinely care for her, such as the magnifico giantess Wanda (Franca Marzi), her neighbour and fellow hooker. She may even be a little 'psycho,' the favourite taunt of her enemy Matilde, another prostitute who stakes out the rough and tumble Appian Way. Whatever Cabiria is she's unforgettable: humiliated and shaken upside down by boys who save her from drowning -- her boyfriend threw her in and ran off with her purse -- or shyly star-struck in the company of real life film star Alberto Lazari who picks her up outside a nightclub after his swanky girlfriend storms off.
To watch the flicker of emotions, on what one critic has described as Masina's pale 'golliwog' face, is to understand how cinema's first audiences were left spellbound. The magic isn't lost on modern audiences -- the restored Nights of Cabiria was voted audience favorite at the 1998 Seattle Film Festival.
And while the 1955 melodrama La Strada is the Fellini-Masina classic that pops up on the TV late show, Nights of Cabiria is the far better film -- a brave, funny, and unpretentious testament to the human capacity for hope, presented in a seemingly casual, episodic manner.
Nor was Nights of Cabiria ignored in its day: it won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, while Masina won best actress at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as the year's best actress in Italy, Germany and Japan. Critics adored it and The New Yorker's Pauline Kael described it as Fellini's finest film.
Seen for the last four decades in drab 16 mm prints, the movie has returned to the big screen in a new 35 mm version made from a restored negative, a new translation of the subtitles and updated sound, carried out at Rome's Studiocine under the supervision of France's Canal Plus.
The movie offers a fascinating insight into Vatican politics of the post-war era as the newly-restored Cabiria features a sequence that Fellini was forced to cut due to pressure from the Roman Catholic Church who saw it as an inference that they were not adequately providing for the poor and homeless.
Known as the 'Man with Sack,' the sequence shows a serious man in a fedora and trenchcoat (actor Leo Catozzo) who has taken it upon himself to distribute food to the poorest of Rome who live in holes the surrounding hills.
Fellini, who at one time, thought the sequence was lost forever, based "Man with Sack" on a real man he had observed.
Its exclusion from the movie now seems unthinkable, as the house-proud Cabiria, owner of a tiny cinder-block structure on the city's outskirts, has a premonition of her own fate when she recognizes one of the earth-dwellers as Bomba, a once famous and wealthy prostitute.
It is this 'shock of recognition' which inspires Cabiria to take part in a pilgrimage to ask the Virgin for help in changing her life.
The shrine turns out to be a circus of greed with vendors hawking food and candles, and priests dispensing instant absolution, surely a far harsher indictment of the Church than the sight of a lone Good Samaritan distributing candles and chocolates to earth-dwellers.
by T.S. Warren
FILM
Flamenco
Directed by Carlos Saura
February 26 to March 1
ByTowne Cinema, 325 Rideau St.
Roger Scannura & Ritmo Flamenco
Wednesday, March 3
Mercury Lounge, 56 Byward
9 p.m., $7
It's a treat to beat your feet to the flamenco beat
Flamenco is more than just a dance.
It is a culture, a feeling and, now, a film.
Director Carlos Saura has captured the sensuality of flamenco and brought it to the big screen.
Few words are spoken in this documentary-style film, but the images, songs and dancing convey a visually arousing message.
Saura takes us beyond the stereotypical Antonio Banderas lookalike dancing with a woman in a flouncy, ruffled dress clicking her castanets, taking us into the heart and soul of flamenco.
There is no denying the underlying sexuality in the dance, especially when the steaming Joaquín Cortés -- one of 300 performers gathered for this film -- takes to the floor in his tight, black satin pants and works himself (and the audience) into a frenzy.
But the music, songs and dances tell a story, a history that stretches back nearly 500 years to the gypsy enclaves of southern Andalusia in Spain.
Saura explores each form, from the more widely-known bulerias to martinetes , which stem from some of the earliest aspects of flamenco.
Vittorio Storaro's cinematography is beautifully and flawlessly executed, treating the viewer to every line, wrinkle and expression on the performers' faces and every intricate move of the dancers' feet.
Flamenco runs the gamut of emotions, from the joyous shouts and handclapping in some songs, to the woeful lament of others. The guitars seem to talk to one another. The music (and dancing) stir up intensely powerful feelings
The setting is simple, designed so as not to distract from the musicians and dancers. A huge warehouse-like space is split into rooms by huge, white dividers with minimalist background light.
Saura has several films under his belt to date, including 1996's Taxi.
For readers who think flamenco starts and ends with The Gypsy Kings, or for genuine aficionados, beat your feet to the ByTowne for this must-see.
For a more up-close and personal look at flamenco music, the Mercury Lounge, 56 Byward, hosts Toronto's Roger Scannura and Ritmo Flamenco Wednesday, March 3, at 9 p.m.
Scannura, along with dancer wife Valeria and band Ritmo Flamenco, will play his brand of traditional flamenco tossed with a mix of improv jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms.
Flamenco has even hit cyberspace. For info on events, courses and further explanation of the world of flamenco check out <www.sparta.ca/~flamenco.
by Alia Kellock Heward
MUSIC
Boywonder with Kennel District
Saturday, Feb. 27
Zaphod Beeblebrox, 27 York St.
9 p.m.
Boywonder, Jim Bryson, Garrity, THERMOcline & Andrew Vincent
Sunday, Feb. 28
Babylon, 317 Bank St.
Saturday is your last chance to see Boywonder.
Not that the Ottawa foursome is packing it in. Far from it. Fresh off two successful Toronto dates, the band is excited about playing its first Ottawa show in over two months.
Rather, Saturday will be Boywonder's last show as Boywonder. The band will unveil a new name during the show. Then, the band formerly known as Sam I Am will become the band formerly known as Boywonder.
The band had little choice in the renaming matter. It seems the folks at D.C. Comics own a copyright for the name "Robin, the Boy Wonder" and sent a letter to the band asking them to end any confusion.
"We want to use it as a kickoff," singer Lou Saracino says of the change. "We're more positive now in our outlook than we ever have been. So much has gone on."
The name is not all that's new. Boywonder has a new management company (Toronto-based AMP) and has been selected to play Canadian Music Week International '99 next weekend. (The band can be seen this Sunday, Feb. 28, alongside other CMW-bound artists.)
But, no matter what, Saturday will almost certainly be the final new-name unveiling for the band.
"This is the last time we change the band name, I swear to God," Saracino insists. "If we have to change it again, I'm going to start shopping for rifles. It's way too stressful to do."
--Mike Boeckler
MUSIC
Giora Feidman
Saturday, Feb. 27
Canadian Museum of Civilization Theatre, Hull, PQ
8 p.m., $24, $19 seniors & members, $14 students, $12 children
"I was educated this way," Giora Feidman says. "To use expressive music as a language."
The music he expresses best comes from the Jewish tradition, whether classical or popular. And Feidman's clarinet will come as a clarion call to admirers of Klezmer sounds and to those who heard Feidman's distinctive playing in Schindler's List.
But Feidman insists his playing essentially has "nothing to do with Jewish music. You don't say the pizza is only from Italy."
Yet Feidman acknowledges Klezmer music, and music in general, as "the tradition of the Jewish people. They sing and dance. People ask why we always sing. But if you don't sing, you don't understand."
Feidman's effervescent sounds cross cultural and musical boundaries with the same enthusiasm the 20-year veteran of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra displays towards life. Klezmer, he notes, is "a fabulous approach to the body as an instrument."
Speaking with the clarinetist, like listening to his music, can be an exhilarating experience. Feidman seems blessed with wisdom of the ages -- particularly when he enthuses about the unifying power of music, a subject so obviously dear to him.
"We never have songs fighting," Feidman observes. "The tune doesn't know if you have anger or hate -- the tune only knows peace. And every human being is an instrument of song."
"There were many composers in concentration camps," Feidman notes of music's importance. "Sometimes the pain is so terrible, the only way you can escape is through the soul. And music is the language of the soul."
--Wig
MUSIC
Polaris
Saturday, Feb. 27
Molly Maguire's, 130 George St.
9 p.m.
At a corner table in the Aloha Room, a sun-like lampshade casts a warm, red glow on Polaris guitarist Paul Hogan's lamb-chopped profile. It's a mellow Monday night and, pint in hand, Hogan leads me back to the rock and roll aesthetic of the Atomic Age.
According to Hogan, the Atomic Age roughly spanned the mid-'50s to mid-'60s, a time when rock and roll was in its infancy and every good nuclear family had a fallout shelter in the basement. Polaris continues to prove the Cold War might be gone, but it's musical legacy is not forgotten.
"For some reason, I find the whole Cold War thing pretty funny," Hogan says. "And, musically, it's led me to the U.S.S.R."
The band continues to toy with the idea of adding vocals. However, with songs like "Ultravladimir," "Black Sea Bossman" and "Egyptorama," Hogan feels the titles say enough. Not to mention, actually writing lyrics would require supporting the titles with linear thoughts.
"The titles are signposts to the irony within the music," Hogan says.
"I think we all really like the stuff we do and appreciate the musical traditions we borrow from. But, at the same time, we try to make it a bit funny."
--Steve Smith
MUSIC
The Reid/Taheny Band
Saturday, Feb. 27
Parkdale United Church, Memorial Hall, 429 Parkdale Ave.
8 p.m.
This Saturday, St. Patrick's Day comes a little early to Capital City with a performance by Irish born multi-instrumentalists Loretto Reid and Brian Taheny.
Blending the passion and rustic beauty of traditional Irish music with the urban sensibilities of jazz and even funk, the Reid/Taheny Band tastefully explores various influences without compromising the Celtic soul at its centre.
--Steve Smith
MUSIC
Martin Sexton
Saturday, Feb. 27
Bronson Centre, 211 Bronson Ave.
8 p.m., $15 adv., $17 door
If blue-eyed soul is a rather tired term, one can rest assured there is nothing hackneyed about the music, or the voice, of Martin Sexton.
But, as those who caught the singer at last summer's Ottawa Folk Festival already know, Sexton's is a voice imbued with soul to spare. His latest album, The American, is a fine showcase for his skills as a singer and songwriter. Often moody, always intense, the songs are brought to life by Sexton's expressive vocals and finger-picked guitar style.
Sexton credits the late Ted Hawkins with inspiring him to drop the pick, as it were. "I saw (Hawkins) and he played with his fingers," Sexton recalls. "Plus, I kept losing my picks and never seemed to have another one handy. Playing this way, I get to utilize the thumb for bass and the fingers for rhythm."
As for protecting those golden pipes, Sexton has a routine consisting of "warming up for at least half an hour before every show, drinking only water with lemon and not speaking at all right after a show." After a fall tour of 60 shows in three months, it seems to be working.
For that tour, Sexton had a drummer along. This Saturday, he will go it alone. Or, as he puts it: "Just me and my thumb."
--Wig
FILM
Waterwalker Film Festival
Friday & Saturday, Feb. 26-27
Canadian Museum of Nature, 240 McLeod St. (at Metcalfe)
$20, $10 Friday only, $15 Saturday only, free for children 12 and under
This weekend, the Canadian Museum of Nature will host the fifth biennial Waterwalker Film Festival. During the two day event, over 75 films from across Canada will be competing for prizes in 10 categories.
The festival was created in 1989 as a tribute to Canoeist, author, filmmaker Bill Mason, whose films and books helped bring the outdoors inside.
This year the festival will pay homage to the late filmmaker, Lynn Clarke, whose kayaking films have won a number of awards at previous Waterwalker festivals. The tribute includes two of her most recent films -- Significant Consequences and Dancing With the River. The tribute to Clarke will begin at 8 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 26.
Kicking off the Waterwalker Festival this year will be award winning authors James Raffan and Joanie McGuffin with a slide show presentation about their trip across Northern Ontario. Raffan will also give a talk about the canoe as a Canadian symbol, Images of Bark, Skin and Cedar.
There will be a special daycare program set up so parents can enjoy the show. Advance tickets are available at Trailhead and Mountain Equipment Co-op.
--Lina Urbisci
MUSIC
Black Sheep Inn 5th anniversary
Friday, Feb. 26 Keith Glass
Saturday, Feb. 27 The Mike Plume Band
Friday, March 5 Woebegone
Saturday, March 6 Bob Walsh Trio
Sunday, March 7 Ian Tamblyn
Wakefield, PQ
Room at the inn
Celebrating five years at Le Mouton Noir
by Terry McDonald
In an era when the public has become accustomed to deriving its entertainment from big boxes -- the Corel Centre being the biggest box of all -- the Black Sheep stands apart because of its intimacy.
The Black Sheep's fifth anniversary, which will be celebrated over the next two weekends, owes a great deal to the fact that the Wakefield establishment has become something of a retreat for musicians and patrons alike.
"Being a rural, village hotel, it was our duty to present live music on the weekends," explains co-owner Paul Symes.
And it's the inn's inspired blend of live music which compels Ottawa Valley music lovers to take to the winding roads of the Gatineau Hills in order to attend the shows on the roster. It's a line-up which regularly includes the likes of Skydiggers Andy Maize and Josh Finlayson, Fred Eaglesmith, Bob Wiseman, Stephen Fearing, Garnet Rogers, Lynn Miles and Mike Plume.
"On Friday and Saturday nights we aspire to be a jukejoint in the tradition of the Southern United States," Symes muses, harkening back to a time when people from all backgrounds would gather at roadside barns to dance and play music the whole night through.
For a so-called jukejoint, it has the attraction of a sanctuary.
When world renowned Black Umfolosi visited from Zimbabwe last year, Symes enlisted the help of Carman Trails to help the group to take home pleasant memories of the Canadian winter.
"The all wanted to try the (cross-country) skiing," he remembers about the a cappella coal miners' visit. "They had a riot."
Though he describes the small population in the area as fractured along linguistic, cultural and age lines -- he uses these diverse demographics to his advantage.
"Just to survive, it gives us the luxury to do almost everything -- at least once in a while," he reasons.
For the anniversary, the inn has chosen musicians who personify the best of the venue's favourite genres. The Zydeco pleasures of Main Squeeze (featuring Prairie Oyster's Keith Glass), country-flavoured rocker Mike Plume, reggae masters Woebegone, Quebec music legend Bob Walsh and our own folk musician extraordinaire Ian Tamblyn will all, in their turn, hold audiences in rapturous thrall.
The only unexplored musical realm, Symes ponders whimsically, is opera.
"We're waiting for a troupe doing a jukejoint tour."
MUSIC
Wine, Women & Song with
Lori Jean, Tammy RayBould & chickpea
Saturday, Feb. 27
Barrymore's Music Hall, 323 Bank St.
9 p.m., $6
There's estrogen in the air -- and on the air -- at Barrymore's, as three of Capital City's finest female voices take the stage for a show to be recorded for broadcast on Rogers Community TV's Front Row Centre.
You'll likely remember Christine Chesser, of chickpea, from our cover of Feb. 11. And chances are, you've seen Chesser with her rotating cast of backing musicians at some point during the last three years. Suffice to say, Chesser's are among the cleverest pop songs you're likely to hear 'round these parts. A new album is promised for later this year, and there'll plenty of new songs for the chickpea army to enjoy.
Lori Jean has some new songs as well. But the singer who became a familiar voice with the defunct Suicide Kings has yet to release a long overdue album of her own songs. To date, one Lori Jean song has made it to disc, on last year's Resurfacing benefit album.
"I have a couple of tunes recorded towards my debut CD," Lori Jean insists. "The main obstacle, of course, is money. Things are taking a little bit longer than hoped."
Cheza alumnus Pat Giunta, who will be playing bass with Lori Jean this Saturday, is set to produce the album. "He seems to have a sense of direction as to where the tunes should go before I do," the singer enthuses.
As for Resurfacing, the fine collection of songs compiled as a benefit for the 16-year-old Women in Crisis Project, Lori Jean proudly reports the first 1,000 copies have nearly sold out. And a number of copies have been made available for sale at various festivals.
Like last year's Lilith Fair. Lori Jean recalls some confusion surrounding the sale of the collection at Lansdowne Park last summer.
"I was under the impression that once you set up a booth, that was your space," she recalls. "But they said, `You can't sell CDs here; you have to do it at the Tower Records booth.' But that wasn't working, so I started the selling CDs again. After that, nobody told me I couldn't."
Lori Jean will be accompanied by Giunta, drummer Mark Rehder and guitarists Alan Marsden and Biron Brunelle for Saturday's show. And she promises some new tunes, following a recent "writing frenzy."
Tammy RayBould was also at last year's Lilith Fair, of course, as a performer. And for the former busker, it raised her profile several-fold. "It was a great experience," she says of her first big shoo. "People were very responsive. It wasn't intimidating at all."
Since then, the young pianist-singer has done some writing and played a handful of shows around town (and in Toronto), continuing to build a following for her Sarah McLachlan-esque songs. This Saturday, her band will even include a former Suicide King, Trevor Finlay on guitar.
"I was offered a publishing deal," she says of recent developments. "But that's not exactly what I was looking for. So I'm still looking."
Sifa Choir with The Mighty Popo
Friday, Feb. 26
Perfect Strangers, 207 Rideau St.
9 p.m., $10
A month in the life
Sifa and Popo sing out for Black History
"This year, there's not been much of an organized agenda for Black History Month," Sifa Choir member Tarrah Mauricette says. "Some members of the Black History Month Committee have moved out of town since last year, so events have been scarce. Popo and Sifa decided this can't happen!"
As a result, two of Capital City's busiest artists -- Sifa and The Mighty Popo -- will be celebrating black history by raising their voices this Friday. It'll be a musical evening of African roots and sounds pointing to the future.
Originally, Jacques Murigande (aka The Mighty Popo) explains, the two local artists "were supposed to do a gig at the NAC for Black History Month. But that got cancelled, so we pulled this together instead."
Actually, according to Mauricette ("no relation to Alanis," she says), "another person wanted to organize (the NAC gig) with us on the bill, but wanted us to do all the work." For Friday's gig, Sifa and Popo are doing much of the work, but taking centre stage for their troubles.
"The show is just to celebrate Black History Month," Murigande explains. "There's so little we know about African-American and African-Canadian history. There's been a lot done to try to diminish the importance of it.
"We want to celebrate and show we know who we are. Through music, we can educate ourselves."
Murigande's sound continues to move away from traditional American-style blues to a sound steeped in the music of his native Burundi. "It's a new sound, for sure," he says, "but it's African."
Of course, the "blues roots" remain in The Mighty Popo's infectious, highly danceable songs. And with a frontman who is equally comfortable playing guitar with local reggae kings Raggamuffin and discofied dance band The Hammerheads ("I'm still a sideman, solid," he says), the music is sure to turn heads.
Plans are afoot for a second album for Murigande and band, with Ross Murray producing and Vince Halfhide helping out with arrangements. But, for now, Murigande is concentrating on Friday's celebration.
"There are other events, but mostly not musical ones," he says of Black History Month. "We want to keep up the good work done by others... and pay the rent."
Mauricette, one of 20 or so voices comprising The Sifa Choir, concurs. The glorious choir will be performing at the African-Canadian Achievement Awards in Toronto next month, and recently performed at the Honoring Our Elders event. It's ever-busy schedule is particularly impressive, given the size of the a cappella outfit.
"It's a constant trial," Mauricette says of keeping the machine running smoothly. "We're from all over the African continent and the islands. But we learn so much from each other; the exchange within the group is incredible. Many join as much for the people as for the music."
There's even talk of a tour featuring Sifa and The Mighty Popo. "He has ideas for us; we have ideas for him," Mauricette says. But this Friday's show is a start. Mauricette is excited about the show, agreeing it will be a special evening.
"But as far as we're concerned," she adds, "we do black history 365 days a year."
by Allan Wigney
THEATRE
A Common Man's Guide to Loving Women
March 2-13
NAC Studio
8 p.m., $12.50, $10 students
This is what you want, this is what you get
A Common Man's Guide to Loving Women is an engaging return to the issue that has dominated much of 20th Century theatrical dogma: What do women and men want from each other?
As we ring out this century -- one which witnessed the suffrage movement defeating the argument women are not rational enough to vote, but in which men are still fair game for banal feminist humour -- one could argue the sexes are farther apart than ever.
Firing a headlong trajectory into this milieu is playwright and actor Andrew Moodie. His Common Man's Guide, while resonating with panache, proves men are still badly in need of a philosopher king to clear away the debris left by wave upon wave of feminist theory crashing on their weary shore.
"In many ways, we know what women want," Moodie suggests. "That was made clear to us in the great works of Kate Millet, Simone de Beauvoir and even the work of Suzy Sexpert. Now we're trying to decide where we're at, and some of us are still a little confused."
Moodie's muse was an incident which happened during one of his acting gigs. Moodie and a few others had small roles in a production which gave them the opportunity to chat between scenes. Over the course of the run, they became friends with their female dresser -- so much so, she was viewed as `one of the guys.'
One day, when the conversation struck upon the topic of their first sexual encounters, they innocently inquired where the dresser first experienced the bacchanalia of love. When their query was met with panic rather than humour, it was clear a chalk mark dividing men and women's approach to sex had been inadvertently traversed.
"Contrary to popular belief," Moodie says, "there are a lot of men who really try their best to understand women. There is this myth that when guys get together we just run women down, where, in fact, many men try to understand a woman's viewpoint. I've tried hard to construct the play so the presence of women is strong."
The action revolves around a group of four young African-Canadian men: Robin (Moodie); Wendle (Conrad Coates); Chris (Derwin Jordan); and, Greg (Andrew Jason). Over the course of one evening and with increasing eloquence, the men tackle heady issues arising from their relationships with the women in their lives.
The conversation traverses a number of subjects. "Power, sex and sexuality," Moodie says, "all the way down to, 'Do I give me wife an orgasm? Am I pleasing her sexually?'"
Moodie won a Chalmers award for Riot, which premiered in Toronto in 1995, in addition to earning kudos for his take on the hotly divisive separatist issue in Oui. But, although he thrives on creating what he terms "dynamic moments of theatre on stage," he considers himself primarily an actor.
"I'm a playwright only when I'm out of work as an actor," he claims. "So if I come out with a new play, you know my acting career is not going so well."
by Jennifer Ball
A Company of Fools presents Everything Shakespeare Ever Wrote
Wednesday to Saturday, March 3-6
GCTC, 910 Gladstone Ave.
8 p.m. (2 p.m. matinée Saturday), $12, $8 students & seniors
Papa's got a brand new Bard
Foolish games afoot at GCTC
Enter Shakespeare and his company of players.
They have met to rehearse Shakespeare's first play. The aspiring playwright, having been taught to write about familiar topics, has titled his first work, The Tale of Young Will: A Poacher on the Lamb.
The players are displeased with the young Bard's first creation and walk out of rehearsal -- leaving a crushed and baffled Shakespeare in their wake. "Why are my plays so damn bad?" poor Will wonders.
The Great Canadian Theatre Company sets the stage for Ottawa's Company of Fools March 3-6, as they weave a Shakespearian, Alice in Wonderland-type web guaranteed to leave audiences in comic convulsions.
On his Foolish journey, Shakespeare meets future characters from all 38 of his plays, plus figures from epic poems and sonnets. Through a course of chaos, confusion and mayhem, the Fools teach the Bard passion, love and -- of course -- how to write, in Everything Shakespeare Ever Wrote.
The Company of Fools' flavourful and distinctive take on the noble Shakespeare was hatched in 1990 by founders Margo MacDonald and Heather Joplin. The University of Ottawa theatre graduates hoped to secure summer employment busking Shakespeare on the streets of Capital City. One suspects The Bard would not have been amused.
The Fools subsequently achieved great success on the fringe circuit, generating top revenues at the first Ottawa Fringe Festival in 1997. They've been on several tours -- both province-wide and local -- performing anywhere they can.
"The work we do can't just be in theatres," says current artistic director Scott Florence, a six-year veteran with the Fools. "It has to be wherever the people are: in the streets, shopping malls, high-schools, restaurants -- everywhere!"
The versatile group's raciest, most amusing productions have been its collective's collages of the Bard's masterpieces. To date, the Fools have written nine original compositions. All are true to the historical text -- with, of course, a few miniscule additions and alterations as required.
(The hotly debated accusation that Shakespeare poached lamb, for instance, provides the ficticious title of Shakespeare's first play.)
The Shakespearean Conspiracy, Shakespeare's Interactive Circus, Shakespeare Does the Seven Deadly Sins, Foolius Caesar and full-length productions of Romeo & Juliet: The Comedy, As You Like It and Comedy of Errors have graced local stages ranging from fringe festivals, to the GCTC's NightHowl series, to the University of Ottawa's Academic Hall -- along with sundry venues across the country.
So far, Everything Shakespeare Ever Wrote has been collectively written, rewritten and performed by the Fools three times.
"If you consider 85 per cent of the script being rewritten a rewrite, then it's a rewrite," jokes Michael Brunet, director of the present production.
Brunet, who performed in the first two productions of Everything and strongly resembles the famous playwright, explains the need for this latest rewrite. Prior presentations under the same title were especially intense, he says, jam-packed with, well, everything Shakespeare ever wrote.
Earlier productions, then, were something of an endurance run -- leaving audiences laughing but a little confused about the play's cohesiveness. Or, as Brunet puts it: "That show was a lot of fun, but what the hell happened?"
The Company of Fools' latest production will feature the talents of Nicole Blundell, Tim Mooney, Andrew Morphew, Virginia West and Hugh Neilson.
Florence takes the stage as well, but remains focused on the group's future in Ottawa and otherwise.
"My goal is to reach people who wouldn't normally go to theatre, who think theatre is a dirty word," explains Florence.
"And the dirtiest word possible being Shakespeare, I want to give them such a good time that they walk away saying, `I want to see another show.'"
by Donna Millar
That Woman
Feb. 24-28, March 2-6
Arts Court Theatre, 2 Daly Ave.
8 p.m. (2 p.m. matinée Feb. 28), $12, $10 students
Cigarettes & Chocolate
Feb. 26-28, March 3-6
Arts Court Studio, 2 Daly Ave.
10 p.m. (8 p.m. Feb. 28, 2 p.m. matinée Feb. 27), $10, $8 students
Ruminations on the human condition
Uncommunicated emotions serve as the cruxes for both That Woman and Cigarettes & Chocolate.
While the members of a household fail to ever "arrive together" in That Woman, it is a Londoner's promise to give up speaking for Lent that keeps her from being heard in Cigarettes & Chocolate.
Woman director Lise Ann Johnson confides it was playwright Daniel Danis use of language which attracted her to his work when she helped workshop a translation of a play five years ago.
"In a way, I guess you could call him a Quebecois Tennessee Williams but, in a way, he's even more poetic than that," she observes, crediting translator Linda Gaboriau with capturing the essence of Danis' work in English.
"Missed opportunities for love, family and warmth," become apparent to the audience as three residents of a house appear onstage at once -- only to exist in three different time frames.
"In a way, it's three inter-connected stories," Johnson comments.
In Cigarettes, adapted from a radio script written by the acclaimed Anthony Minghella, it is the characters' failure to connect with their own identities that keeps them from engaging with others.
"It's funny how an inability to deal with silence provokes the characters," comments Cigarettes producer Sarah van Diepen. "They become unhinged because they're faced with themselves."
For director Janet Irwin, the play's message is echoed in an Oscar Wilde quote which is used: "We live in a time when we know the cost of everything and the value of nothing."
"Minghella is really talking about the need for reflection," Irwin believes.
--Terry McDonald